Building Resilience

In today's session with Dr Shelly Harrell you'll learn how to protect, prepare and empower yourself in the face of stress by building your resilience. Stress can often separate us from ourselves, from our bodies, our values, our strengths, and our inner wisdom. Yet by bolstering your resilience, you will start to feel more grounded and confident in the face of stress and change how you show up in the world.

Transcript

Welcome to Day 7 of Insight Timers Strategies for Stress Challenge.

Let's take a moment to get settled.

Close your eyes,

Take a deep breath in and exhale out.

Let's dive into today's strategy for stress.

Hello and welcome to Insight Timers Strategies for Stress Challenge.

My name is Dr.

Shelley Harrell and today I want to share a bit about the importance of cultivating resilience for the inevitable stress and adversities we all encounter in our lives.

Let's dive in.

We often hear about coping with stress,

The cognitive and behavioral strategies and individual skills we use to manage specific stressors in our lives.

And having a repertoire of these coping skills and behaviors is very important.

Coping strategies are helpful contributors to resilience.

However,

Resilience is a bigger umbrella that includes not only what we do,

But who we are.

Research in both resilient science and positive psychology has found several personal strengths and qualities that are consistently associated with resilience.

These include flexibility,

Hope and optimism,

Courage,

Gratitude,

Meaning and purpose,

Positive identity,

Self-efficacy,

Competence and empowerment,

Relationships,

Connectedness,

Community and belonging,

And humor,

Joy and happiness.

However,

We know that stress can disconnect us from our resilience.

Stress can snatch us up and we can get lost and separated from ourselves,

From our bodies,

Our values,

Our strengths,

Our inner wisdom,

Our humanity.

We can get disconnected from others and their humanity,

From community and belonging,

From nature,

Spirituality,

From our sense of meaning and purpose.

We can forget what matters most.

This is why we need to consistently and intentionally focus on three things that help us reconnect to our resilience when the stress of life disconnects us.

And these three things are the pillars of resilience.

Awareness,

Allies and action.

We will come back to these three pillars for our practice together.

But let's take a step back for a moment to understand a little more about resilience.

Resilience science is a rich interdisciplinary field,

Integrating the work of some leading resilience science researchers.

We can understand resilience as a multi-level,

Bio,

Psycho,

Socio-cultural,

Spiritual process that reflects the capacity for positive recovery,

Adaptation,

And growth in the context of stress and adversity.

Resilience science suggests that resilience includes,

But is more than bouncing back.

It's also about our thriving.

Our resilience resources are varied.

Resilience lives in our biology,

At the physical and somatic level,

In our nervous system.

Resilience is also in our psychological,

Emotional,

Mental life,

In our attitudes and personality characteristics,

In our relationships,

As well as being related to the cultural,

Socio-ecological,

And socio-political context within which we live.

So you can see that resilience includes much more than individual coping skills and strategies.

Remember,

Stress disconnects us.

It is our resilience that brings us back home to who we are,

To our strengths and values,

To what is most important,

And gives us a firm foundation for managing stress optimally.

How resilience protects,

Prepares,

And empowers us.

So we need methods for building our resilience.

And this is where the three pillars of resilience,

Awareness,

Allies,

And action come in.

Let's take a look,

A closer look,

At each of these pillars.

First,

The awareness pillar helps us reconnect to ourselves and our experiencing.

The awareness pillar supports connection to somatic,

Sensory,

Emotional,

Mental experience,

Our values,

Identity,

Inner wisdom,

Critical consciousness of the world around us.

It is about expanding our field of awareness,

Opening our eyes,

Our minds,

Our hearts.

Next is the allies pillar,

Which helps us reconnect to relationships and the environment.

The allies pillar supports connection to other persons,

Family,

Friends,

Sources of social support,

To groups,

Organizations,

To community,

Culture,

Ancestors,

To nature,

Animals,

Spiritual resources,

Cultural expressions such as art,

Music,

Poetry,

Dance,

And to our favorite things,

Those places,

Activities we love.

All can be our allies.

Allies are more than people.

And finally,

The action pillar helps us reconnect to our agency and our power.

The action pillar supports connection to motivation,

Choice,

And decision-making,

Being proactive,

Our self-efficacy,

Self-care behaviors,

Communal care behaviors,

Our inner aliveness,

Our freedom,

Our creativity.

The stronger our pillars of awareness,

Allies,

And action,

The more protected we are from how stress can disconnect us,

The more connected we are to ourselves,

Others,

And how we show up in the world.

So let's practice together.

The pillars of resilience practice is a guided inquiry and reflection.

So grab a writing utensil,

Your journal,

Or some paper,

Or open up the Notes app in your device,

And let's get started.

Let's take a breath together,

Getting grounded and present,

Allowing the flow of your breath to bring you into the present moment more fully,

Letting your inhale be a gentle wind that sweeps away the clutter in your mind,

Letting your exhale be a release and settling so that you can focus your attention on this practice,

Using your breath to locate yourself in your body and to open space for you to access and hear the voice of your inner wisdom.

Just breathe.

Our practice begins with a brief stress scan of the different domains of our lives,

Such as work,

Intimate relationship,

Family,

Friendships,

Health,

Finances,

School,

Community,

Society.

Choose an area of life where you are experiencing moderate intensity stress,

An area that needs your attention.

Feel free to be specific in identifying your area of stress,

Like my relationship with my partner,

And write that area of stress down.

Now I'm going to offer three inquiry questions,

And each question is an invitation for you to apply that pillar to your stressor or life domain.

I'll then open up space for you to do some silent reflection and writing,

And this can be free writing or bullet points or doodling,

No rules.

Let's take a breath.

First,

The awareness inquiry.

Our first prompt question is,

Considering this area of stress in my life,

What can I be more aware of in myself,

My personal strengths and values,

Others,

The situation,

The larger context?

What needs more attention?

Where can I increase my understanding?

How can I be more connected to myself?

What can I be more aware of?

Let's take a few moments of reflection and writing.

Moving on to the allies inquiry.

Our second prompt question is,

Considering this area of stress in my life,

Who or what will I connect?

Who or what can support me in this area of stress?

Who or what helps me reconnect with myself,

My values,

My strengths?

Who or what will I connect?

Let's take a few moments of reflection and writing.

And finally,

The action inquiry.

Our third question,

Considering this area of stress in my life,

What choices will I make and what actions will I take?

What values,

Congruent choices are available to me at this time?

How can I apply my awareness,

My wisdom,

Strengths and resources to the stress I'm experiencing?

What choices will I make and what actions will I take?

Let's take a few moments of reflection and writing.

After this session,

I encourage you to take some time to review your writing and construct three intention statements that reflect your primary takeaway from each pillar.

The statement should begin with the following,

I will be more aware of,

I will connect with,

I choose to.

Consider putting your intention statements in your calendar,

Planner,

To-do list or notes or in your phone so that they are easily accessed and help you to stay connected with what builds your resilience.

Doing this pillars of resilience practice regularly strengthens your awareness,

Allies and action so that they can increasingly support your stress resilience.

Remember where your attention goes,

Your energy flows.

You will find that consistent practice will help you feel more grounded and confident as you manage the stress in your life.

This is not rocket science,

But we have to practice.

Keep strengthening the pillars so that they can more optimally and effectively support our resilience so that they can protect,

Prepare,

And empower us in the face of stress.

Let's take a breath together.

I invite you to share in the discussion forum and comment something about your experience with the pillars of resilience practice.

You can share what came to you during the reflective inquiry.

You can share your intention statements.

I encourage you to incorporate this practice into your daily routine.

As a morning practice,

You can scan the day ahead for what might be challenging or stressful and create your intention statements for the day.

As an evening practice,

You can reflect on the day and identify an awareness,

An ally,

And an action that supported you that day in managing the stress in your life.

Congratulate yourself for even the smallest ways that you are strengthening and activating your resilience every day.

Thank you for trying out this pillars of resilience practice with me.

Sending you much peace and love and light.

Reviews

Having met with multiple complainants to a partnership business I’d chosen I found this well worded work. I thank you for your wisdom and strength to put forward this recording It was here when I needed it and has been a great way for me to consolidate my own work

Love the breakdown of resilience and the intentional questions

Loved it ❤️
Thank you for this!

Very enlightening. I am a sensitive soul and this made me aware how easily I become stressed and loose my peace. Using the 3 pillar approach is an excellent tool to build resilience which is key to coping with stress in our lives to enable us to bounce back and to thrive. Thank you 🙏

Wonderful

Thank for this powerful and gentle tool. Namaste 🙏

A 🌼A 🌼A
Blessed! Many thanks❤️
kjr

It is really helpful, thank you !! I would love to have it written do many information to absorb .

It was very helpful. I’ve been working on it for several months and it does pay off since I’m working on it almost every day.

Honestly the writing prompts were incredibly helpful.

That was the best explanation of resilience and the best strategy for coping with stress that I have read. Thank you 🙏